Rupaul’s Drag Race Season 8 Epi 4: New Wave Queens

Okay my peoples. Earlier and earlier still with the reviews. By the end of the season I should be finishing them on time! Pow! This week’s episode was New Wave Queens, an extravaganza where the queens had to write and perform their own new wave songs. This was another fun one. You know what? This whole season has been fun because although there are some assholes, it’s totally not as hostile as some of the queens on Season 7. It just feels more positive. Anywho, this week’s guest judges were Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein and Lucian Piani. SPOILER ALERT!

The Challenges

Mini Challenge

There actually was no mini challenge this week and in a surprise move, Rupaul let the queens choose their own teams. Ultimately we had two teams who really wanted to work together and one with the “leftovers”.

Main Challenge

This main challenge as stated above was for the three groups to write and perform their own New Wave song in front of the judges and the audience. After choosing their own teams, the queens had to decide which type of song they wanted among themselves. Their options were Party, Punk, or Synth. Robbie, Naomi and Kim Chi chose punk (like whaaaaa?) and the other two teams wanted Party. Chi Chi Devayne who was on the leftover team with Derrick Barry and Naysha Lopez did not want to be with them and said she wanted Synth. Team New York swooped in and basically manipulated convinced them to take Synth instead. So the groups are as follows…

The Groups

Les Chicken Wings (Kim Chi, Naomi Smalls, Robbie Turner)

Les Chicken Wings. Wow. So at first I was thinking these are three queens who are all different and none are punk in any way. Kim Chi comes closest in the looks department but she is just so soft spoken and has that cute lisp. Why would they choose Punk?? I was worried for them, especially when they went in for coaching with Lucian and let out some underwhelming screams. But overall I think they worked together the best. They chose a theme and wrote their lyrics together and generally got along much better than the other teams. On top of that, the KILLED in the challenge. I was sad that they were pronounced the winners and shuffled back stage for untucked so quickly; I wanted the judges to praise them for doing such an unexpectedly great job. I mean the screaming and spitting water and insult lyrics directed at each other. It was comedy gold. Also, they all looked really good and this was a totally different look for Robbie. J’adore!

Street Meatz (Acid Betty, Bob the Drag Queen, Thorgy Thor)

Street Meatz was good, but I expected more from them. They all have big personalities so they weren’t really getting along very well while trying to write the song, and surprisingly it wasn’t Acid Berry Betty causing most of the trouble, it was Thorgy! Their song was good though but it broke my heart when Bob was being kind of disrespectful during the session with Lucian. I did like their outfits though and completely disagree with the judges on Acid Betty’s look. I thought it really fit in and since everyone is throwing the B-52’s around, I felt it was something they would actually wear!

Dragometry (Chi Chi Devayne, Derrick Barry, Naysha Lopez)

Dragometry was doomed from the start. After all the other girls enthusiastically grabbed each other, these girls were left out. So they didn’t really choose to work together and I think that probably hurt their chances because no one wanted to try to make the best of it, least of all my girl Chi Chi! I can kind of sympathize with her though. Their outfits were okay and I thought they did an okay job but compared to the other groups, it just didn’t stand up.

The Runway Looks

This week’s runway look was Neon Realness. I couldn’t find great pictures of everyone so I haven’t posted them but I will provide a video! Yay!

Acid Betty

Acid Betty’s look was so detailed and conceptual and very well put together. I thought it was good but maybe a little bit too much. What do I know? Well actually I do know that Betty was actually kind of nice this week. Who knew??

Robbie Turner

Robbie’s saloon girl dress was really nice. I’m coming around more and more to Robbie’s aesthetic and I think she does a good job of staying true to herself and still taking the challenges head on. And that water spitting in the challenge? Yes!

Kim Chi

Kim Chi is another one that is really conceptual. Her makeup job was really cool and interesting but the outfit wasn’t great. Loved the hair tho!

Thorgy Thor

I liked Thorgy’s outfit and I liked the hair. I didn’t really like all the lines and stuff but y’all know I love Thorgy anyway. I was surprised with the behavior in the group challenge but it wasn’t horrible, just not usual for her. But she still killed on the challenge tho.

Bob The Drag Queen

Y’all know I love Bob. But I’ll be honest, I really didn’t enjoy Bob’s look this week. The accessories looked like they were made of posterboard and the paint on the head wasn’t enough to make up for the outfit not being neon at all, and if it wasn’t gonna be neon, it should have been fire. But, alas, it wasn’t. I liked her performance though.

Chi Chi Devayne

Chi Chi really struggled this week, especially not being in a group she wanted to be in. I think a lot of the problem was pressure to step it up when she doesn’t have many costumes and feels like because she didn’t have the money for these grand outfits then she couldn’t turn it out. The bankruptcy news was really surprising and it’s sad she has to work two jobs. I thought her runway outfit was cute. I think it’s a little unfair this season because there are so many conceptual queens and her outfits would be fine if there wasn’t Thorgy, Betty and Kim Chi on this season. Those girls’ costumes are cray. Either way I thought she did the best out of her group on the challenge.

Derrick Berry

Derrick is getting on my nerves by the week. That whole Berry Booty thing. Like, really queen?? When Michelle Visage said you didn’t have soul, she didn’t mean to start twerking. This is problematic because Derrick is conflating soul with twerking/acting black and I am not here for that. Kick rocks girl. Also her outfit was better than others but still boring int he long run.

Naomi Smalls

Naomi’s performance was really good! I also loved her runway look. Finally something different this week and I was here for it. I think she’s gotta do more to stick out in the long run.

Naysha Lopez

Poor Naysha, she really, really wanted to work well with her group. I feel bad for her because their group didn’t do very well and she didn’t stick out very much. Chi Chi stuck out despite being the most disruptive over the week.

The Elimination

So the bottom two were Chi Chi Devayne and Naysha Lopez. Chile, they turned this lip synch OUT! Naysha started with the cartwheels, they both really did a great job but at some point, Chi Chi’s adrenaline kicked in and this girl was flipping, and back flipping and death dropping the house down! It was such a good lip synch. I fear for anyone else if they ever have to lip synch against Cheech Devayne. YAS!

Okay so next week is Snatch Game! I cannot wait to see what the queens come up with. I can’t decide whether I want Derrick Barry to do Britney or not, after all Chad Michaels did do Cher on Season 4. Anywho, here’s a sneak preview of next weeks epi. Till next time kids…